Oil spill leaks up to 600 gallons into Bronx River

Yonkers firefighters work to contain an oil leak from an oil tanker truck near 125 Bronx River Road in Yonkers, Feb. 27, 2016. (Video by Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

No one was injured by the spill.

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Yonkers firefighters dump oil into a containment pool as they work to contain an oil leak from an oil tanker truck near 125 Bronx River Road in Yonkers, Feb. 27, 2016. (Photo11: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)Buy Photo

YONKERS - As much as 600 gallons of oil drained into the Bronx River Saturday as hazmat crews scrambled to clean up a large oil spill.

"It's a major cleanup operation," said Yonkers Fire Department Chief of Operations Robert Capurso.

The truck, carrying 6,000 gallons of home-heating oil, was en route to Glendale Gardens, an apartment building at 125 Bronx River Road, around 8:30 a.m., Battalion Chief Timothy Fitzpatrick said. As the truck pulled into a driveway to make the delivery, oil began leaking out of the truck.

The truck's oil tank was divided into three sections, and the driver managed to contain the oil in two of them as the third section leaked.

Up to 2,000 gallons of oil spilled onto the roadway in front of the apartment building, Fitzpatrick said.

Up to 600 gallons of oil made it to a storm drain on the road and emptied into the Bronx River.

In addition to a private cleanup company, Yonker's hazmat crew — which utilizes special equipment like capture basins — managed to capture 1,400 gallons of the spilled oil.

"We saved that from going" into the river, Fitzpatrick said.

Charlotte Picariello, 88, who lives in Glendale Gardens, said she saw the cleanup beginning this morning from her second-story apartment window. While the odor wasn't a nuisance during the day, Picariello said a 2,000-gallon oil spill was unacceptable.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "Because things like this shouldn't happen. They should know what they're doing."

Marine units were dispatched and set up a boom to attempt to contain the oil in the river, which Fitzpatrick said may have reached as far south as 233rd Street.